I've seen the Whisper room. Pictures at least. And someone else's practice room just now but I'm not sure what it was exactly.

I'm wondering... How difficult is it to build your own sound proof practice room?

What's involved?

How much does it cost?

The one I was just looking at looked like boards with sound proofing material covering it. How much work is that? Just plywood... cover it with sound proofing material? Make it airtight. Make the floor extra padded, etc.

But I'm in an apartment and will be in one for a few more years at least. Portable, as in movable, is a must.

And like the whisper room... Where you could add on sections later. That would be a smart move too. Like lego pieces to assemble. I don't like the idea of having my sound bounce back and damage my ears in a really small room. Earplugs could help that but still... a larger room would be better but that's not how I would start off.

And ventilated eventually.

Are there plans for something like that out there? Has anyone done this before? I remember someone on here who built their own permanent practice room, but I want one I can pack up and take with me.

And if a small Whisper Room cost 1-2 grand... I'm thinking I could build something similar myself. The big question is IF if would actually be sound proof though.

I just looks like something basic most anyone could build. Plywood, hinge it together on the outside, seal it air tight and cover the inside with special audio form... But would it cost more than just buying one? Or be some mammoth beast of a thing when it comes to actually moving it?

And if I wanted to start the cheapest way possible and just create a sound proof box... If it's air tight and a small space, is that a concern for breathing? I mean you could just open the door, but still... "Dumb trumpet player suffocates if self-made box" does not sound like an appealing headline.

I've seen full-height booths that folks have made for their apartments, but I don't know if you need that for a trumpet. You might be able to get by with a box with a hole in it. Think of a small pet carrier with the door removed, lined with sound-absorbing material.

That's a new idea for me. What do you do? Somewhat seal your bell in the box and then play as normal?

I don't think you even need to seal the bell, though I suppose you could front-load the opening with extra padding so it'd close back around the body of the instrument (lightly).

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Doesn't any of the sound seep out from the instrument itself?

Sure, but not so much that it'd seep through the walls or floors of your apartment, I would think. Think about it, you put a practice mute in and it reduces the volume significantly.

It would be easy to cobble together a prototype before sinking the money into the real thing. You just want to make sure there's space in front of and around the bell so that you're not introducing resistance by inhibiting the flow of air.

You could probably create the prototype with a cardboard box. The trick would be to find dampening materials that give you the most bang for the buck (and space), and layering them for maximum effect.

Of course, if you've got a box and it's air tight, and perfectly air tight, when you blow into the trumpet, there would be nowhere for the air to seep out.

You would inhale air from the box, creating a slight vacuum in the box and a slight overpressure in your chest. Then you would blow into the trumpet, letting the pressure return to equilibrium. If you were to keep blowing you could create a slight vacuum in your chest, and a slight overpressure in the box that would correct itself when you inhaled. You could repeat this dozens of times before you extracted all the oxygen in the air and dropped dead of CO2 poisoning.

This is effectively what happens every time your breathe anyway, it's just that the amount of air you take in compared to the amount of air in the entire planet's atmosphere makes the change in pressure of the planet negligible.

Stuart_________________"So long, and thanks for all the fish!" -- Dolphins

One thing to keep in mind is that you will not be able to hear the sound out of the bell of your horn appropriately if you have a room that is soundproofed. Even less if the bell is in a sealed box. You might want to incorporate a mike and headphones to compensate.

Yeah, the box isn't sound like that great of an idea now. If it's sealed it might act more like a mute with backpressure. And if it actually works well, you can't hear yourself.

If you use it like a portable (movable) closet, I could see that working. A lot easier and chaper to build than a whole room, for sure. Plus I was thinking it could double as a microphone "all but one wall" sound room. Place the mic inside and block out some noise that way.

The box/closet is still going to be too loud for my apartment.

So I guess I'm back to the whole room idea.

I was thinking maybe double walls could work. And if I want it movable (as in moving it myself with no help and putting it in a car myself), maybe some kind of overlapping walls. Board with sound material inside (dead air space). And then two walls of that. With more sound proofing material on the inner compartment. That would have some impact.

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Then you could add more on later. I wonder how the pieces would be sound/air sealed at the joints though. Rubber?

Actually for the "pain in the ass" factor, I think the Whisper Room or something like it might be easier and maybe cheaper just to purchase, instead of messing around with building something.

I was starting to wonder about the weight of this thing. Say you're on an upper level of an apartment and it's a cheaper wood construction? I was wondering if cynder blocks would work for the floor (maybe just floor) but then the weight issue hit me.

Maybe it could still work. If there were a way to have individual wall/floor/ceiling pieces that you could connect like legos or something.

I imagine a landlord would be thrilled to see something like that in an apartment too. "What's this giant wooden room doing in the apartment?" I could coat the outside, make it look like a pod, ask him if he wants to step inside an be teleported.

It would be easy to cobble together a prototype before sinking the money into the real thing. You just want to make sure there's space in front of and around the bell so that you're not introducing resistance by inhibiting the flow of air.

You could probably create the prototype with a cardboard box. The trick would be to find dampening materials that give you the most bang for the buck (and space), and layering them for maximum effect.

Or just play into the clothes in your closet.

For a while I had a styrafoam cooler (a disposable one, like what you get if you mail order frozen steaks) loosely packed with pillow stuffing, with a piece of fabric stapled over the open end. I put it on a bookshelf, and played with the bell against the fabric. As quiet as a practice mute, with little change in back pressure. I stopped using it because my neighbors are loud, and never complain about unmuted trumpet playing._________________paul